The Walking Dead - Series 1 DVD Box Set

RRP: £29.99

Best Price: £8.99

Taking Frank Miller’s Sin City as an example, the graphic novel tends to take an overly stylised approach to things - violence is presented in an extreme, almost cartoon-like manner. You come to expect violence with no real consequence, cause with no real effect - things happening because they make a cool image, or deliver a good cliffhanger.

You do not, however, expect severed limbs, blood and characters fighting for their lives. You do not, ultimately, expect a full-on, absolutely terrifying horror.

But The Walking Dead isn’t a normal graphic novel adaptation because, well, it’s not your normal graphic novel. Drawn in black and white, the books follow a group of survivors in the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse as they attempt to find a place of safety from the attacking hoards. Our main character is Deputy Sheriff Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln), the only man left to help those members of the public without a lust for human flesh. The series opens with Grimes waking up from a coma - when he finds himself in a world completely different to the one he left, he begins a search for his family - if it’s not already too late.

The quality of The Walking Dead is, at least in part, down to the figures involved. For the comic book, from which the premise and some key plot moments are adapted, was created by Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore and Charlie Adlard, a trio of men who’ve become synonymous with quality output, particularly in the horror genre. For the TV show, Frank Darabont took the helm - a man who has proven through his work on The Green Mile that he has a talent for taking mystical, paranormal events and ensuring that they hit an audience on an emotional as well as visceral level.

These parts come together to make a whole that is one of the most promising new shows on TV for some time, a take on the zombie genre that attempts to embellish rather than reinvent. The Walking Dead delivers everything you expect - moments of real terror and nail-biting cliffhangers - and then, through incredible production design and fascinating central character, it delivers a little bit more.

This DVD box set features all six episodes from the first season of the show, as well as some behind the scenes featurettes which give a fascinating insight into the work it takes to make a production like this come together. It’s a must-buy for fans of the show and the best way to catch up with The Walking Dead before it, literally, takes over the world.